Eel’s early morning spent scavenging on the Thames River as a “mud-lark” brought a few things to the surface. There was a nice piece of copper, but he had to give that over to one of the stronger mud-larkers, a kindly blacksmith turned to this low way of making a living. But he did come away with two valuable things—or at least valuable to him. One was a half-drowned cat, thrown into the river by a bully boy. The other was a word of warning from the old blacksmith. Fish-Eye Bill was looking for him again, he said. A year Eel had spent in an easier life, getting his schooling, working two jobs and staying away from places he might be seen by Bill’s crew. It sounded like the makings for serious danger. Though in Deborah Hopkinson’s The Great Trouble, Eel’s problems are only beginning.

Weaver’s Daughter, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, is a great story for mothers and daughters to share together!

Every fall Lizzy gets sick…very sick and no one knows why. Each year it gets worse and worse. It’s 1791, and doctors are expensive and hard to come by, and her family does not know what to do. Lizzy just knows that she won’t be able to get better when it happens again this year. What did families do back then when their children were sick? They didn’t know about asthma and allergies.